NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has given a 12,000-light-year-away star a surprising twist in its mysterious brightening event. Initial theories suggested the star was swelling into a red giant and engulfing a nearby planet, but Webb’s infrared gaze revealed otherwise. The star, ZTF SLRN-2020, appeared calm, indicating that the planet wasn’t consumed by explosive stellar behavior.
Instead, the distant world, roughly Jupiter-sized, was doomed by its close orbit to its host star. Over millions of years, the planet’s orbit shrunk until it skimmed the star’s atmosphere, causing material to “smear around” the star. The final fate of the planet was a fiery faceplant into the star.
The discovery provides valuable insights into planetary system fates and challenges previous understanding of star-planetary interactions. This novel event was made possible by Webb’s high-resolution infrared capabilities, which will help astronomers study more cosmic anomalies in the future.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/webb-telescope-reveals-astronomers-got-it-all-wrong-about-this-dying-planet-2000587646